Engine Swap

Some time ago I bought a spare engine and stripped the sheet metal off it with the intention of having it powder coated. However the old engine was leaking oil bad enough I decided it was time to do an engine swap which I did over the week preceding the fourth of July.

Some people prefer to pull the engine and transmission as a unit. I do not when doing the job by myself as in this case. It is very easy to pull the engine only. We pulled Craig Norton's engine and transmission together and found it took quite a bit more time.

New Engine. Here is a page devoted to the new engine.
Naked Engine. A page of picture of the new engine after the sheet metal was removed.
Removing the Engine. Last fall we used my bother Rick's motorcycle jack to remove and replace the engine on Craig Norton's 912. Ramps were used to raise the car.

This time I decided to use jacks and jack-stands instead of ramps to raise the car. Three reasons to use jack-stands:

When the engine disconnected from the car, the suspension raises the car away from the engine. This is an advantage for removal but requires additional thickness of support under the engine to put it back in the car.
I did not like the idea of driving the car onto ramps without a spotter and could not push it onto the ramps by myself. Of course as you will see from the pictures I did have a 'come-along' that I used to lift the engine, but I had no convenient anchor point on the garage to pull the car.
I don't own any ramps.

Of course I did not own a jack that could lift the car high enough either, so the first step was a new jack.

	The new jack can reach to 21 inches compared the the old one that can only go up 14 inches.
	Disconnect the heater lines and flexible heater tubes.
	Put a strap across the shock towers and under the transmission. This strap will support the transmission while the engine is out of the car.
	Here is the strap under the transmission.
	Disconnect the shift coupler at the inside of the car in the center tunnel behind the back seats. Put the motorcycle jack under the engine and support the engine to allow the bolts on the engine mounts to be removed.
	Remove the bolts to the engine mounts in the engine compartment. The engine must be supported by the jack to do this.
	Remove the two bolts on the bottom of the transmisson and the two nuts at the top. Engine removed showing the strap holding up the transmission.
	Using a come along from the garage rafter to lift the engine off the motorcycle jack an on to a mechanic's dolly.
	Copper exhaust nut and two exhaust gaskets.
	New engine going back in.
	The new billet aluminum oil strainer cover with integral oil drain plug mounted on the new engine.

Last modified: Mon, 21 Jul 2003

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